Formation of Lecce Stone and marine wildlife
edited by Medica Assunta Orlando e Sabrina Rossetti
| Ancient Lecce Stone quarry of Torre Miggiano |
During the Miocene Era, between 24 and 5 million years, the most famous geological formation in the Salentino territory, Lecce Stone was slowly formed of marine sediment.
The largest extensions of this calcareous rock are found near Lecce, Vernole, Lizzanello, S. Donato, Martano, Cursi and Melpignano. Due to its wide availability and the relative ease with which it is extracted, due to its characteristics as a "soft" rock, Lecce Stone has been widely used to build local structures, since ancient times, and was especially popular in the construction of Baroque architecture.
Local quarrymen have given different names to these formations: pietra gentile (kind stone) or leccisu for stone with a fine, homogeneous grain; saparona to stone with a more white-coloured grain easily fragmented; bastarda for homogenous rock with occasional breccia vein (where the rock was fractured into sharp pieces, cemented together by sand or mud); piromafu for rock with homogeneous whitish-green grains; and mazzara for the coarser grained stone.
During the extraction phases an immense patrimony of fossilized evidence came to light, which has allowed the reconstruction of the rich wildlife that populated the Miocene seas. For example there are frequent discoveries of Carcharodmay that may have been up to 20 meters long and had a mouth opening of about 5 meters.
Recent research has filled out the painting of the rich wildlife present in this formation, showing new taxa exclusive to the Lecce rock, such as Rudicetus squalodontides, Messapicetus longirostris, an ancestor to the dolphin, a large physeteridae that was over 9 m. long; the Zygophyseter varolai, and a new whale species such as the Archaeschrichtius ruggieri, which may have been the precursor of today’s grey whale.
The ventarole, funnel shaped openings, to which another Museum itinerary is dedicated, were formed among the surface strata of these formations in the Riss-Würm interglacial period from between 120-80 thousand years ago.
Further studies:
F. Gianfreda, Le formazioni rocciose del Salento, in L'Uomo e la Pietra nel Salento Preistorico. Guida alla conoscenza e alle escursionisul territorio, a cura di M. A. Orlando, Lecce, 2007.
A. Varola, Nuove scoperte fossili nelle formazioni rocciose del Salento, in Le scienze geo-archeologiche e bibliotecarie al servizio della Scuola, a cura di M. A. Orlando, Monteroni, 2005.
A. Calia, Pietre calcarenitiche del Salento. Le cave di estrazione, in L'Uomo e la Pietra nel Salento Preistorico. Guida alla conoscenza e alle escursioni sul territorio, a cura di M. A. Orlando, Lecce, 2007.
G. Quarta, Pietre calcarenitiche del Salento. Le attività estrattive, in L'Uomo e la Pietra nel Salento Preistorico. Guida alla conoscenza e alle escursioni sul territorio, a cura di M. A. Orlando, Lecce, 2007.
